Friday, March 02, 2007

Home-made orecchiette with cannellini, tuna & dill

Orecchiette means little ears in Italian, but sorry folks I didn't do a good job in shaping... pressed the dough way too hard; it curled up too much. Due to the poor shape I wasn't planning to post it, but after I tasted this dish, I just love every bit of it! Love that undertone sweetness from semolina pasta and cannellini, love that clean taste from tuna and dill, love that floral aroma from Novello extra virgin olive oil, so now I change my mine, and going to share this lovely recipe to you guys!

For about how to shape orecchiette: (abstract from the book of Lidia's Italian Table)

Lightly dust your work table with semolina flour, cut out some pasta dough and roll to a cylinder, about 3/4-inch thick (I rolled a bit too thin). Cut it into 1/4-inch-thick slices (I'm not experienced, so I cut it thicker, easier to work with). Cut side up, drag the dough round away from you while pressing down lightly (I pressed too hard). The dough will form a cup shape around your thumb. (The following step I forgot to do) Invert the cup and press down on the center of the dome to make little ears.

Recipe of orecchiette with cannellini, tuna & dill

2 servings of home-made orecchiette

1/2 to 2/3 can (15 oz/ 425 g) of cannellini *. You can cook you own if you have time

1 can chunk light tune in water

1/2 white onion, chopped

a small handful of dill

2 Tbps butter

good extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

optional: Parmesan cheese *

Direction:

Rinse the beans, drain well, set aside. Drain the tuna, set aside.

Cooking fresh orecchiette only take 2 - 3 minutes, please plan out the timing ahead, I want the pasta and the saute (the following) done at the same time.

Heat butter, saute onion for 2 minutes, add generous amount of ev olive oil, add beans and tuna, toss for 30 seconds or so, add salt. Use a big straining spoon to transfer the cooked pasta from the pot to the saute pan (as I want the pasta *a bit* wet), quickly toss all the ingredients (just a few seconds), scoop them on a serving plate. Sprinkle dill, salt and pepper (and cheese if used) to taste.

* My note:

some canned beans can be very mushy, like mine - Luigi Vitelli :( Do you have any good brand to recommend?)

In general people don't add cheese on seafood pasta, but since I used the canned tuna it didn't have much flavor, the cheese worked very well in my dish

33 comments:

I think it looks great. Personally I think that on homemade pasta, a little bit of unevenness in the shape just adds to the charm. Makes it a bit more rustic. I also agree with you about the rule of no cheese with fish. Rules are made to be broken I say! Sounds yummy.

Angie, thanks :D by the end the taste is everything, and you guys can master the shape, hehee.

Lydia, thanks for your encouragement too :D

Chris, it must be a lovely memory! Actually one of my friends (an Italian guy who runs a cafe in my town) was the one who told me about orecchiette, his grandma used to make it to him. When he shown me how to roll the ears out, I saw from his eyes filling with sweet memory!

Tanna, don't you think they look like mini-gnocchi *lol* But the bite is really fantastic, I can forget about the shape :D

Anh, take care your important tasks first *hug* Me too, the idea of making pasta been in my mind for months/year, haven't put into action until now.

Your are really good in making pasta, just a little remark... your orecchiette to me look more like cavatelli. I think after you have shaped orecchiette you have to turn the orecchietta on the other side (to invert them) to really form the shape of a ear.Very good work though!Ciao.

I wouldn't mind nibbling on these ears, simply endearing. As for the tuna, after living in Italy and eating all the tonno in olive oil, the flavor cannot be beat. OOps sorry, think you asked about a bean recommendation? Never mind.

This is a great post, I especially love the step-by-step photos. Not only are they helpful but very well done, they looked like something you'd see in a magazine! I'm going to be hard pressed resisitng the urge to take out my pasta maker this week.

Sabrina, thanks for your tip!!! It's so helpful. Right, I did miss that step! Certainly give it another try. Come to think of it, mine looks quite a bit of cavatelli :D

Bea, yes please do, super-easy!

Asha, thanks for your encouragement :D

Patricia, don't worry, they are super-easy to do, I just missed one step (as English is not my first language, mistakes always occur...). I'm sure you have no problem to make wonderful pasta, in any shape!

Brilynn, I think all these kitchen hiccups driving us more innovative :D

Helene, I just wish there's a video something for us to view. One picture is better than thousand words!

Sandeepa, oh thank you! I know, a bunch of foreign names... :D

jyothsna, thanks for your compliment. The braided appearance sometimes can fool people and think we probably slaving ourselves in kitchen, actually only took me a minute :D

Ellie, thanks sweetie! I just found out there's a perfect lighting from one window :D

Callipygia, you're such a darling!!! That's ok (forget the beans!)! I've seen that tuna in oil sold at that Italian grocery store, I thought, can food is can food, no differece... obviously I was wrong. I 110% trust your taste, yup, will go buy one!

Ari, you don't need a pasta machine if you intend to make these ears, isn't that easy :D

Burcu, here's another fantastic blogger has done gnocchi. Take a look, it's breath-taking!

Ruth, oh I'm really flattered! And I'm sure you can do it better than me :D

Edith, thank you my friend!

Joey, really thanks for your sweet words :D

Melting wok, I think so too, hehee.

Helene, thank you so much!

Scott, dig it out! Really fun, like playing with PlayDough :D

Freya, they are my favorite too *high five*

Simona, *baci* Haven't seen much update in your blog, hope you everything ok.